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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Testimony of Emmy B. Simmons
Assistant Administrator-designate
Bureau for Economic Growth,
Agriculture, and Trade
Before the Committee on Foreign Relations
United States Senate
February 28, 2002
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to appear here today as President Bush's nominee for Assistant Administrator in the newly-created Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). I am honored to be nominated for this position, and deeply appreciate the confidence that the President has expressed in selecting me from among the career Foreign Service Officers at USAID for this position.
I recognize that this position will require frequent consultation with the Congress and this Committee as it will touch on a range of issues of importance both at home and overseas. If confirmed by the Senate, I would hope to work with you to increase USAID's effectiveness in supporting the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals by addressing the long-term challenges of hunger, poverty, environmental sustainability, and conflict prevention through our programming in agriculture, the environment, trade, economic and institutional reform, microenterprise development, and education.
I firmly believe that the assistance that the U.S. Government provides to developing and transition countries through the USAID programs has contributed and will continue to contribute in important ways to making the world a more peaceful, prosperous, and healthier place to live. I have spent the last 23 years of my professional life in the Agency, helping to bring new ideas, new skills, and critical food and financial resources to the people, local organizations, businesses, and governments of the developing and transitional economies around the world.
I am convinced that, under the leadership of the President and Administrator Andrew Natsios, and with the support of the Secretary of State, USAID has an important opportunity to sharpen the focus of its programs and shape them for greater impact -- especially with regard to economic growth, agriculture, and trade. I know that all of the career staff with whom I have spoken fully share this conviction and are ready to bring new ideas and new energy to the tasks ahead.
Over the course of my career with USAID, I have had the opportunity to work closely with Agency staff and the staff of partner-organizations skilled in a broad range of technical areas -- irrigation, telecommunications, community forestry, small business development, capital markets, and health care reform, to name but a few. However, as the Administrator noted in his testimony before this Committee, we no longer have on staff all the depth of technical knowledge and experience that we need to face the newer challenges of the day. We have, for example, few scientists who can provide leadership on the application of biotechnology in agriculture. There are few geographers and climatologists who can guide the development of geographic information systems that will enable us to better predict the impacts of climate change and thus to mitigate them. Should I be confirmed, I would hope to lead the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade in renewing the Agency's technical capabilities and enabling staff to focus on the critical issues that stand in the way of reducing poverty and hunger.
Over the past four years in Washington, I have had the pleasure of renewing my contacts with the U.S. land grant university community, particularly regarding food and agriculture. I have been at the forefront of the Agency's efforts to revitalize the Board for Food and International Agricultural Development, or BIFAD. The BIFAD meetings stimulated a series of wide-ranging discussions of the potential for partnership between USAID and the U.S. land grant university community and contributed, in part, to USAID's endorsement of the Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa. The revision of the Title XII language in the Foreign Assistance Act also reflects the BIFAD-led discussions. I would like to thank both Senator Biden and Senator Hagel for introducing the measure in the Senate for approval. If I am confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to leading the implementation of the broader vision for agriculture, agribusiness, and natural resource management that is encompassed in this new legislation.
In so many ways, the position for which I am being considered by the Senate is a culmination of my professional aspirations. Almost 40 years ago, I joined the Peace Corps and merged the theory of international relations that I had learned at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with the reality of rural survival in a relatively poor Filipino barrio. I returned from that experience to study agricultural economics at Cornell University and then spent five years of teaching and conducting village-level research in northern Nigeria. I began to blend theory with reality. I take some modest pride that, in doing so, I was able both to develop some realistic understanding of agricultural production, microenterprise development, and the role of women in development that has allowed me to design and implement programs that work to improve peoples' lives.
The reality of the world today is that economic growth has brought enormous benefits to hundreds of millions of people worldwide, enabling families to educate their children, grandfathers and grandmothers to live long enough to see their grandchildren succeed, and those children to choose among job opportunities that would have been unthinkable for their parents. Agricultural productivity has more than kept pace with population growth, thanks in part to a succession of USAID and other donor-supported "green revolutions." And trade has literally exploded -- with volumes in the year 2000 16 times greater than they were in 1950.
At the same time, the reality of the world today is that progress has been uneven. I am told that too many households in Nigeria are no better off today than when I lived and worked there 30 years ago. Farmers in many countries continue to mine their soil for a living and have only the energy of their arms and backs to put into the production of a crop expected not only to feed their families, but several more who live in urban areas.
While I have already worked in USAID for more than 20 years, I cannot turn a blind eye to this darker reality or to the opportunity, if confirmed, to work with this Administration to reshape, reorient, and reinvigorate the Agency to address it anew.
I would like to close by quoting the President's remarks, made on July 17, 2001, at the World Bank:
"The needs [of the developing world] are many and undeniable. And they are a challenge to our conscience and to complacency. A world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day is neither just, nor stable. As we recognize this great need, we can also recognize greater promise. World poverty is ancient, yet the hope of real progress against poverty is new. Vast regions and nations from Chile to Thailand are escaping the bonds of poverty and oppression by embracing markets and trade and new technologies. What some call globalization is, in fact, the triumph of human liberty stretching across national borders. And it holds the promise of delivering billions of the world's citizens from disease and hunger and want. This is a great and noble prospect, that freedom can work not just in the new world or the old world, but in all the world."
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Last Updated on: January 02, 2009 |
